99-84 AUTHORIZING DESIGNATION OF CITY AS PRIMARY RESCUE/RESPONSE PROVIDER

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, , � - ` . . DECATUR FIRE DEPARTMENT Memorandum 99-6 Date: August 17, 1999 To: Honorable Mayor Terry M. Howley and City Council Members From: James Williams,Jr., City Manager Rolanda Johnson,Assistant City Manager � Leslie Albert,Fire Chief �"�, Re: Technical Rescue Team On April 12, 1999,the�ity of Decatur and several industires entered into an agreement to provide fundi.ng and support for a Technical Rescue Team to be provided by the Decatur Fire Department. This agreement included funding of$120,000. for equipment and for the staffmg of three firefighters for three years. The breakdown of the funding for the equipment is as follows: Hazardous Materials Response $64,969, Confined Space and Rope Rescue Equipment$20,600, Trench Rescue Equipment$24,500, and to retrofit the response vehicle was$10,000. This totaled $120,069 for this project. The task force established by Councilman Foster has been working diligently on raising the funds to establish this project. At the present time the task force is several thousand dollazs short of reaching its goa1. The task force has asked the City of Decatur to assist in reaching its goal during the third year. The designated rescue team is governed by 29 CFR(Code of Federal Regulations) 1910.146. The liability to perform rescues efficiently will be placed on the designated rescue team. By taking on this responsibility the fire department will be required to perform additional training at industrial sites and be evalua.ted by such businesses that use us as their designated rescue team. The additional three firefighters are needed to help meet these needs of evaluation during training exercises. By agreement between the City of Decatur and Decatur Firefighters Loca1505, only two companies can be out at any given time for training purposes. There is a mi.nimum manning clause in this contract requiring three firefighters to be assigned to each company. During a traini.ng exercise this would mean there would only be six people on scene to trai.n. This would allow two entrants(to perform the rescue),two attendants (to watch over the entrants), one supervisor and one support person. An e�ra person would at least allow an additional support person to carry equipment, monitor atmosphere or assist with ventilation. The training at industrial sites is an additional requirement that will take away from our , other training which is required for firefighting, EMS, hazardous materials,and other rescue services. Fire department staff is concemed about the additional hours of training for this technical rescue team because it will be taking hours away from firefighting training. Firefighter training hours is a requirement set forth by the Insurance Services Organization(ISO)which sets ratings that govern homeowner insurance policy premiums. The fire department staff does not want an increase in our citizen's insurance policies because of the additional responsibilities